commercials

The blog for inquisitive Gators, Saurian Sagacity, has done an interesting analysis of the effect of the 2006 NCAA football game clock rule changes. I was annoyed all year by the new changes because I felt that it was making the games shorter. I like college football. I don’t want shorter games. I want longer games! It seemed all year that the games were shorter, but the time I spent sitting in front of the TV didn’t change. And now I realize why.

Yes, the games were shorter by about eight minutes. But it’s not like the networks gave me that time. They took away six or eight plays per game, but we got to see around seventeen more commercials. That sucks. There are already plenty of commercials. It’s not like that cash is going to the schools to pay player salaries. Broadcasting college football is a license to print money. That’s why games are being carried by TBS and TNT now. It’s so lucrative as it is there’s no need to screw me out of those six plays.

The only real issue I have with this analysis is that I think it misses the point. What I’d really like to know is the difference between the number of plays run by quarter. The big change this year, I felt, was that the 4th quarter always seemed to be where the time disappeared. There were definitely some thrilling come-from-behind victories this season, but was it just me that thought there were more of them before the clock rule changes?

Just a bunch of random thoughts I’ve been meaning to post …

• It took me for-freaking-ever to recognize that it’s Matt Dillon doing the voiceover on the Pontiac Torrent commercials. It took me five minutes to find and download Struggle, by Ringside — the music from the commercial. I snagged a couple of their other songs, too. Pretty good stuff. I thought (incorrectly) that it was something by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, a band I found on the Mr. & Mrs. Smith soundtrack. (Note: If you’re looking to grab the song on the soundtrack via iTunes, they trick you! The song is listed as Mondo Boongo and you have to buy the entire soundtrack if you want to get it. But! If you look, you can find the song on iTunes under it’s actual title, Mondo Bongo. Sneaky iTunes people.)
• I got a black Motorola RAZR (with Cingular) a few weeks before Christmas. With the sole exception of Motorola’s moronic address book — which has been retarded ever since they started making cell phones; why the hell does the same person show up multiple times if I add more than one phone number for the entry?! — this is hands-down the best cell phone I’ve ever had. I’ve had Verizon and Sprint since I moved to LA, and I think that Cingular has the best service here. The reception is even better than it was with my previous Cingular phone (a Nokia) and you just cannot beat the form factor. Slick.
• Quite Frankly, with Stephen A. Smith, on ESPN, is a darn good show. I don’t always agree with him, but I like his delivery. TiVo it. Update: I’ve changed my mind. He bugs.
• If you’re a web developer and you want to add slick graphs and charts to a site, you really can’t do much better than Fusion, from InfoSoftGlobal. It’s good stuff. Easy to build, Flash-animated, XML-driven, works with ASP or PHP. Check ‘em out.
• I’m going to do my damn level best to run the twenty-first L.A. Marathon this year. I’ve been chugging along with a friend since early December and am knocking out 5, 8, and 10-mi runs pretty regularly now.
• Rumor Has It is an excellent movie. Is it Oscar-worthy? No. But it’s very fun and very original and well worth your $10.
• Freakanomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Amazon) is one of the top twenty best books I’ve ever read. A good friend of mine sent it to me as a Christmas present from my Amazon wishlist. I tore through it in two nights and was floored. It’s making its way through my office now. I highly recommend it. (And thanks, Bob!)

I have met this blogger in person. Do you know the SprintPCS commercials with the guy in the trench coat? “Talking over the static.” That guy?

I don’t wanna freak you out or anything, but check it: same guy. I’m not kidding. Billy is the SprintPCS guy.

“Ten years ago I might not be sitting here today.” - from a commercial for America’s Pharmaceutical Companies

Has anyone caught the infomercial for Kurt Woodruff’s The Secret of Making Money on the Internet?
No, I have no idea who “Kurt Woodruff” is either.
With the notable exception of Planet of the Apes, I think the worst writing in the entertainment industry these days is being done by infomercial writers. Do they have their own guild? That would make sense. If you can’t get into the Writer’s Guild, you join the Infomercial Writer’s Guild!

Ron keeps asking me to create something like this. I knew someone, somewhere must have already done it.
link discovered at dailydoozer